SpyParty won't be released to the public for another couple of years. Hecker says he's seen players fake button presses to fool opponents. But if you're playing in the same room as your opponent, you can't sigh or show relief, or you'll reveal your hand. And the relief, when the beam swings away, is powerful. When the laser focuses on you, the tension is intense. To further heighten the suspense, you can see the sniper's laser sight as it sweeps across the room, eyeballing potential targets. "It was awesome and tense, and I loved the idea of hiding in plain sight and only having one bullet," said Hecker.Īfter proving my incompetence as an assassin, I switched into the spy role. That game took place in a teeming city where one player hunted another with a single bullet. The concept for SpyParty has been kicking around in Hecker's head since 2005, inspired by an Indie Game Jam entry called Dueling Machine. He just picked a target, fired, and said "Let's go again." Hecker says that his former boss, Sims creator Will Wright, didn't get caught up in analysis paralysis. I wasted more than a few bullets on wild guesses and longshots. Later moments behind the trigger weren't so easy, once the spy had figured out how to pretend to be artificial intelligence. The first time I caught my friend correcting his movements in mid-stride, I knew I had my target. My first try as the sniper was easy: All I had to do was watch for the one player that didn't act like a computer-controlled bot. For the double agent bit, it's a secret code phrase – somebody will say the words "banana bread." (Hecker says this is what he was having as a snack when he recorded the audio.) In the case of the physical actions, it's a quick character animation. The spy player has to complete four tasks to win the game: Plant a bug on the ambassador at the party, make contact with a double agent, move a book from one shelf to another and swap a statue for a different one.Įach of these actions has a "tell," a giveaway that the sniper can pick up on if he is paying attention. The mind game starts immediately, because even on this character-selection screen, the spy is trying to outwit his opponent: Which character do they suspect I'd pick? The player can chose to slip into a handful of different character models: a guy in a tux, women in a variety of dresses, a rotund chap in a top hat. SpyParty begins with the spy player, who first selects his character.
Hecker sat us down in a corner, where two laptops with Xbox 360 controllers hummed silently. Experienced players can easily trounce newbies.
I needed to bring a friend, he'd told me, because the game's learning curve is so steep.
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